Tag: faith

For the last few weeks, the strange story of Jussie Smollett being beaten in the freezing streets of Chicago at 2 AM has raised a lot of eyebrows.

That is, from people who do not perpetuate the narrative of a dystopian, racist, Trump’s America that was so well-served by the so-called “modern-day lynching.”

The story instantly had several questionable features, and, sure enough, police seemed to believe so as well.

ICYMI, Smollett is an actor on the television show “Empire” (if you’ve never heard of him, you’re not alone, I hadn’t either) who claimed that on January 29th he was assaulted by two men wearing MAGA hats in Chicago.

In the middle of that polar vortex that brought historically low temps to the midwest and northeast.

At 2 AM.

He claimed the men, whom he knew were white somehow and also recognize him even though in -9 temperatures its hard to imagine any human would have their face exposed, much less at 2 AM, shouted, “This is MAGA country, n*****!”

Several more problems right there, not the least of which being that Chicago isn’t exactly “MAGA country.”

Smollett says that the assailants then put a noose around his neck and poured bleach on him.

To wrap things up, when the assault abruptly stopped, Smollett says, he walked home. Security footage from his building shows him, with the sandwich he had just purchased at Subway still in his hands despite having been allegedly assaulted, walking past security, again, despite having just been allegedly assaulted.

When police arrived at his apartment to take his statement hours later, he still had the noose around his neck.

So when the news broke that this assault had happened, there were several skeptics. Those that could not be included among them were, naturally, the vast majority of the mainstream media and several 2020 candidates, many of whom have yet to respond with the same fervor now that this has happened:

Yesterday morning, Smollett turned himself in to Chicago police after they managed to track down the two men, brothers of Nigerian heritage, who Smollett paid to stage the attack.

Smollett, who police say staged the attack because he was dissatisfied with his $1 million paychecks for his performance on “Empire,” now faces several felony charges. He is now out on bail.

So. If you’re a white Trump supporter, there is no doubt this story has you pretty offended. Smollett not only just made a mockery of a very painful and violent period of our nation’s history, he also managed to crudely slander a wide swath of Americans by implying Trump voters are just roving the streets of America’s city at night, noose and bleach in hand, waiting for any famous gay, black man to come along to assault.

This is upsetting, I get this, and it is no small matter to me.

But something that keeps tugging at my heart strings is the burning question: what kind of state is Jussie’s soul in that he thought this was a good idea?

This incident speaks volumes, both on the state of anti-Trump culture and the level of insanity it has reached.

But it also speaks to Jussie’s spiritual state, and it is not a good one.

I can’t speak to Jussie’s heart, and he does have the presumption of innocence until proven guilty by the courts, of course.

But the evidence seems pretty solid that this man just faked his own hate crime and lied through his teeth about it for weeks and is now facing hard prison time because of it.

All because he allegedly wanted a raise on his $1 million “Empire” salary or, according to some accounts, his character was being written out of “Empire.”

What is wrong with your moral compass at this point? How far has our culture fallen that he knew this would be eaten up, and clearly seemed to be counting on not even getting caught?

His career has exploded now, but not in the way he had hoped.

Fame and fortune; neither are inherently good. Jussie has infamy now, and the fortune he was already earning likely drove him to want more so desperately he just absolutely destroyed his life and career over it (the footage of him being swarmed by reporters after being released on bond is particularly poignant.)

All this points to one, very obvious conclusion for the sad case of Jussie Smollet: he, like every single person on this earth, desperately needs Jesus.

Fame and fortune and sympathy can never fulfill the way Christ can. They can eat us alive and blind us to reality as they did in Jussie’s case.

Don’t ever let the enemy trick you into thinking anything in this world satisfies you fully. You’ll always want more. Material things and earthly praise will always fall short, they can often lead you astray, and will frequently let you down.

Please join me in praying for Jussie. My heart honestly aches with compassion for him and, as a conservative, I should not feel ashamed to say it.

You can think that someone is very, very wrong and also wish for them to find their way to the Cross. In fact, I think we should feel this way as Christians.

He is a lost soul in need of Christ and we need to pray that he finds Him.

Because here’s the really scary truth…Smollett just created a personal hell for himself that nothing on earth can remedy, truly.

In the same way only Christ can satisfy, only Christ can rescue him from the bonds he just tightened around himself.

What Jussie did was worthy of mockery, of scorn, of loathing, of outrage.